Elite Skills Coach, Ryan Thomas!

With this 3 day camp in New Port Richey, Florida your shooting percentage will go up, your mechanics will improve, and your shooting range will increase! In addition to all of this, we will focus on confidence, mental toughness, hard work, smart work, and other intangibles to develop great shooters.

Topics Covered In the Shooting Camp

Foundation of Shooting

This is the first step in becoming a great shooter. Some players will progress through this stage quickly, while others will need to spend a bit more time to correct some bad habits. You will also learn:

How your stance could actually be causing your shot to go left and right and how to fix it.

Why the parallel stance may not be the right fit for you.

How your legs and not just your follow through can actually cause a flat shot.

The proper release point and follow through.

How inflexibility in your legs can affect your shot in a negative way.

Learn the Steve Nash adjustment that allows players to shoot accurately from further distances.

Shooting Off of the Catch Like Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant

After we have built a great shooting foundation, we will progress to shooting off of the catch. You will learn:

How to make your shot quicker.

The mentality to making your shot quicker.

The proper body position for every shot off of the catch.

The proper footwork for different situations during the game.

The proper hand position to create consistency and accuracy.

How to pull up out of the fast break.

Shooting Off of the Dribble Like Russell Westbrook & Kyrie Irving

As the levels go up, it's very important to add a pull up jump shot off of the dribble. This gives you the ability to score as defenders rush out to defend the initial shot. You will learn:

The often ignored, but important progressions for the shot off of the dribble learned from legendary Hal Wissel who coached in the NBA.

Learn how to properly pick up the basketball and how doing it the wrong way could be causing your shot to miss to the left and the right.

Learn how the pace of the dribble can make your shot quicker.

Learn how to properly execute the sweep and step through to create space from your defender.

Learn the mentality needed to have a successful pull up jump shot and how the wrong mentality can be easily defended.

Learn Advanced Shooting Techniques Used by the Pros

You will learn the keys to a quick release used by the pros such as Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry. You will learn the Michael Jordan 1-2 step used to create space and hit the open jumper.

You will learn the details required to be successful with these advanced moves. If you're not ready for the advanced moves yet, we have a system setup that will progress players at the proper rates.

Why Should Your Child Attend Camps & Clinics?

With many youth basketball teams, the trend over the past couple decades has been to play more games and do less skill work. While games are important, your child needs a healthy balance of game time and practice time. The problem with more games and less practice is that your child will touch the ball much less. With more touches, your child becomes a better basketball player.

With all things being equal, we'll break down a typical 32-minute game:

32 x 5 = 160 total minutes for a team of 8 players.

160 minutes / 8 players = 20 minutes per player.

20 minutes per player / 2 = 10 minutes of time that your team is on offense.

10 minutes / 5 players = That means your child is only touching the ball for two minutes per game!!

During our typical skill sessions, the player will have the ball in their hands 60 to 90 minutes. That means you have to play 30 to 45 games to touch the ball as much as a player would during one of our skill sessions.

Also, during a typical game, you're lucky if your child gets 10 shots. During our skill sessions, they should get anywhere from 100 to 300 shots.

Shouldn't My Child Get Plenty of Skill Work During Team Practices?

Yes, they should be, but they are probably not. On top of getting limited gym time (typically 1 to 3 hours per week), most youth coaches will barely get enough time to teach team offense and team defense. As a result, very little time is spent on getting better at individual skills such as, ball handling, shooting, footwork, and other basketball skills.

Now you probably see the importance of skill work outside of team practices and games.

Who Can Participate?

This camp is for boys & girls 5th-12th grades, ages/skill levels will be separated.

Who is Ryan Thomas?

After a strong high school basketball career, Ryan earned a scholarship to play college basketball at Concordia University where he played for 2 years before transferring to finish his college basketball career at Central Michigan University.

Coach Thomas has over 13 years of experience coaching at multiple levels (youth, AAU, YBOA, and High School). Through his dedication, leadership, innovation and tireless work ethic Thomas has become a sought after skills trainer. As a skills trainer he has helped mold thousands of young people around the country developing their game.